About to TRY to make my first knife

R

Rich_S

Joined
Dec 3, 2005
Messages
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My order from Texas Knifemaker Supply came this week:

A 2 foot long piece of 1 3/4" X 1/4" thick 5160 steel bar
Two sets of black canvas micarta scales (5" X 1 1/2" X 3/8" rectangular blocks)
6 Loveless fasteners plus the associated step drill bit

The plan is to make 2 knives - a hunting knife with a 4.5" blade and a bowie with a 9" blade.

I don't have a lot of tools - basically a Delta belt sander with the 1X42" belt and 8" disc (have an assortment of different grit belts), a Dewalt 4 1/2" angle grinder, and some hand tools like files and such.

I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, but that's never stopped me from trying anything before.

I don't think getting the basic shape of the knife ground out will be all that difficult. However, I'm concerned about grinding the bevel and having it look decent. Any tips/tricks/suggestions on doing this - like how to hold the blank and how to keep the angle consistent, etc.? Thanks.
 
Congratulations on taking that first step. Good-Luck! Be sure to post pictures of your progress. I haven't taken the plunge yet....I'm still reading the forums and web pages. Do a search here on the forums for answers to your questions. I click on all of the knifemakers web sites and have found some tutorials on making knives. I also checked-out all of the knifemaking books (4) from the library. In fact I have the $50 Knife Shop under my arm as I'm typing this. Practice will make perfect. I'm going to get some old leaf springs to practice putting an edge on a piece of metal before I try it on a "good" piece of knifemaking material. (I didn't mean any disrespect to leaf springs as a metal for a knife. I meant before I try it on a piece of O-1 that I buy.

Keep us posted.

Reid Allen
 
When I grind I hold my fore arms and elbows close to my body so that the blank does not bounce around. Just take it slow and only grind when you feel like consentrating fully on what you are doing.

I was shown how to do hollow grinds with a 36 grit belt and 1/4 thich blanks cut from jarrah wood. It is softer and goes very quick. It lets you get a feel
of the belts grinding. If you can feel the belts on the back of the bevel on wood steel is a breaze.

Just the the bloke who said he was joing to use old car spring. It will be very hard to work. If there is a spring maker in your city he will be able to sell you some annealed car spring material for just a couple of dollars. Cheaper than replacing a file. (sorry if you already new that). I use a fair anount of old springs but I have a forge to annel them in.
 
Reg ELLERY said:
When I grind I hold my fore arms and elbows close to my body so that the blank does not bounce around. Just take it slow and only grind when you feel like consentrating fully on what you are doing.

I was shown how to do hollow grinds with a 36 grit belt and 1/4 thich blanks cut from jarrah wood. It is softer and goes very quick. It lets you get a feel
of the belts grinding. If you can feel the belts on the back of the bevel on wood steel is a breaze.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I like the idea of using wood blanks to practice on. I'll be flat grinding these blades.
 
i grind blanks out on a 1x42
lock in at and angle and sweep the blank side to side to keep form working one spot too much least thats what i do
start working your bevel lower then you think you want it that way when you find it uneven you can ajust it up to get it nice
you cant put the steel back on so take your time if the grind line starts to get uneven and you are having problems getting it straight step away for alittle sometimes that is the best thing to keep you from real messing it up (ask me how i know this one):rolleyes:
by all means have fun and show pictures
butch
 
I too have not yet made a knife.
Does your belt sander have a tiltable table? If so, I'd set that to the angle you'd like, and just grind the bevels down very close to the centerline. Then flatten out on the disc sander if necessary.

I'm curious how many hp is your belt sander motor? I just got a 1x42 homemade belt sander that was apparently made by a machinist and as a 1/3 hp motor with holes begging to be filled with iron dust.....



I'd cut the profile with the angle grinder (I'd never used one before, and I found it very easy to slice out the profile of my 13" throwing knife with one). Flatten everything that should be flat with the disc grinder. Shape the extra things that you'd like to shape on either sander and the files. Put the bevels in. Sorry if this seems obvious, I just wanted to lay that down so as that someone with experience can yell at me now rather than ruin a good piece of steel.
 
man that 1/4" thick stock may be more than you want to chew right now. Thats THICK but then again.my first knife was a 7 1/2" blade from 3/16" stock ;)
Good luck and go in steps to minimise frustration :thumbup:
 
i cut out my blade blankes by traceing the pattern onto the steel then using a dril and drilling holes as close togather as i can around the templete. then use my dremial tool with a cut off wheel to cut the ribs between the holes. i then use my 9" disk grinder to remove the bures and get clean lines. next i break out my bad A$$ 6" stone bench grinder and i bring the steel down to the lines as close as i can get. i like using the bench stone grinder because it cuts slow but very smoth. i then clamp the blade to a board with a c clamp and some leather and use a mill file and start cutting the edge bevels, i cut the bevel up to half way to the spine and leve about 1-1.5 mm of an edge thickness. i then use my makita hand held 1 x 30 bent grinder that has no platen so the belt will form to the pice im working. i grind the blade with the slack belt to get a nice full convex grinde from the spine to the edge. from there i pick my finishing tec and handle material.
 
Good info folks.

I just cut the steel bar in half using a sawzall with a metal cutting blade and then grinded most of the scale off with the angle grinder. I think they may have sent me a hardened steel bar. How would I go about annealing it if that's the case?
 
Depends on what you have available.
Make some charcoal, light it up and toss the steel in, take out and allow to cool by itself.
Or, if you have a Mapp or propane blowtorch, heat it all up to 'non magnetic' then let it cool in the air.
 
Do or do not, there is no try.

There's my pointless post of the day.
 
You might find it difficult to anneal a piece of 1/4" thick 5160 a bit difficult with a propane torch. You are probably gonna need something a lot hotter and something to help keep the heat in the piece. Not sure what you have for equipment or tools. Good luck, watch your fingers, wear eye protection and a respirator. I've made more mistakes than knives. That's how we learn.
 
Well, I find it a bit strange that steel ordered from a Knife Making place would be pre hardened..... That just makes it more work for them, and has no point for resale. If the sawzall and blade got through it in good shape (slow but not broken), it's probably not hardened.
I don't have much experience, but that's my .02
 
Hardness is not an all or nothing thing.There is quench hardened and there is work hardened.
The process of making steel - rolling,drawing,cutting - make it harden somewhat.This is work hardening.Many makers automatically anneal a piece before working on it to remove stresses and hardness.If you don't have a good HT oven or forge, buy steel labeled "annealed" and it will already be as soft as it will get.The labeling may be CRA (cold rolled and annealed), HRA (hot rolled and annealed), or Precision Ground and Annealed.
Stacy
 
CanDo said:
Well, I find it a bit strange that steel ordered from a Knife Making place would be pre hardened..... That just makes it more work for them, and has no point for resale. If the sawzall and blade got through it in good shape (slow but not broken), it's probably not hardened.
I don't have much experience, but that's my .02
Click to expand...

Well, it took two sawzall blades to get through it. I tried to file off the scale, but that didn't work, so the angle gringer made quick work of that. Maybe it's just work hardening like bladsmith said.
 
I don't think that the steel is hardened....the problem is that your using the wrong type tool...sawsall's not made to do this job...you'd be better off buying a good hack saw and cutting it by hand. Sawsall is more for constuction site work...(sheet rock, siding, light sheet metal) Good luck and remember...if all else fails.....hit it with a hammer!!!!:D ;) :D
 
kricket said:
I don't think that the steel is hardened....the problem is that your using the wrong type tool...sawsall's not made to do this job...you'd be better off buying a good hack saw and cutting it by hand. Sawsall is more for constuction site work...(sheet rock, siding, light sheet metal) Good luck and remember...if all else fails.....hit it with a hammer!!!!:D ;) :D
Click to expand...

I don't know, I've sliced through pretty thick (was holding up a several thousand pound structure, I'm pretty sure it was 3/16" - don't worry we braced everything before the cut) angle iron with surprising ease. Maybe I just had a very nice blade on it, and/or or the steel was exceptionally soft. As long as you have that angle grinder though, don't bother with the sawzall.
 
They make several grades of blades....hard to tell without seeing....try a top of the line Milwaukee blade...??? I've seen them do some severe damage to a structure....cuts through walls and pipe like butter...I'm glad I use a metal cutting bandsaw, but not everyone has access to those. Saves me loads of time.
 
I've cut through things you wouldn't believe with a Sawzall. There's a reason the name ends in "all". And yeah, I was using a high end "Torch" blade specifically designed for cutting 3/16-1/4 metal.

I'm going to try and grind out the profile tomorrow om a bench grinder.
 
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